Stuffed Peppers

I've never made this before. In fact, I feel like most of my recipe posts should start out that way. I like to try new things and experiment. I pretty religiously stick to the original recipe, but Josh is my spice man. He's always like, "You know what would make this taste even better..." and then he thinks of like 8 things to add. Granted, that's never turned out a bad recipe (so far). As usual, I put my own spin on this classic meal.

Serves: 6
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 60 minutes

Ingredients:
-6 bell peppers (of varying colors: green, red, yellow, orange)
-1 lb ground beef
-1 can tomato sauce
-1 can tomato soup
-1 can of corn
-1/2 onion
-1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
-1 cup rice (optional)
-olive oil
-salt and pepper, to taste

1. Preheat oven to 375°.

2. Rinse the peppers thoroughly under cold water. Cut the tops off of each one, but do not throw away. Set them aside.

3. Using a spoon, or your hand, remove the seeds and innards of the pepper, and throw away.

4. Bring a pot of water to a boil on the stove top. Once it is boiling, turn heat to medium, and boil peppers for 2 minutes. After 2 minutes, remove peppers from heat, and rinse under cold water. This will soften the peppers slightly, in case they don't cook all the way through in the oven.

5. Place cooled peppers into a baking pan.

6. In a frying pan, add olive oil, turn the burner to medium and brown the ground beef. Once browned all they way through, rinse meat in a strainer under warm water to remove fat, and set aside.

 

7. Cut up the tops of the peppers into small pieces, and do the same for the 1/2 onion.

 8.  Add more olive oil to the pan, and add the veggies and corn. Cook on medium heat for 4 minutes.

9. Turn heat to low and add meat, tomato sauce, tomato juice, and 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese to the pan, and stir until thoroughly mixed. Add salt, pepper, and desired spices.

10. Add mixture to each pepper. Make sure to fill to the top.

11. Sprinkle 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese over the top of each pepper.

12. Cover pan with foil. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove pan from oven, remove foil, and place back in oven for an additional 20 minutes.

Hunger set in and I almost forgot to take a picture of the finished product. I forgot until I got to my second pepper. Here it is:

Overall, this was really yummy and filling. Next time, we would like to try it taco style, and add black beans, taco seasoning, and top it off with sour cream. Mmmm!